Pottery

Local history gives the honor of establishing the first serious pottery
operation to one Alexander Vance who arrived in the early years of the
19th century and, while still in his teens, began a potter’s trade in
Greensboro.

The ware produced by Alexander and brother James was
likely made from local red clay. The Vance brothers introduced others
to the joys of pottery making and within a decade several individuals
were involved in the manufacture of clay products in this small river
town. One of these was Daniel Boughner, an orphan who, according to
legend, was given a home and a job by the Vance family.

In 1819,
with the Vances’ departure to Ohio, young Boughner bought the business
and began pottery fabrication in earnest. Boughner appears to be the
first area potter to make and fire stoneware in a salt kiln. Boughner
pottery is among the earliest stoneware produced in southwestern
Pennsylvania.

The Boughner firm may have been the first
stoneware operation of significance to establish itself in the
Greensboro area, but by no means did it have a corner on the market. The
potential for manufacturing and shipping clay goods was wide open when
two brothers, James and William ‘Leet’ Hamilton, arrived from New
Brighton, Pennsylvania, around 1850 to start a pottery manufactory of
their own. Bringing with them years of experience in the trade, the
Hamilton brothers apparently located their business operation on Water
Street under the name, James Hamilton and Company.

The history
of the Greensboro stoneware industry is fraught with mergers, splits,
separations, buy-ins, and sell outs. This is especially true of the
original Hamilton company. By 1866, Leet Hamilton had sold whatever
business holdings he had to his son, Frank, and a newly acquired
son-in-law, John Jones. Jones along with his brother-in-law soon set
about the task of producing and selling crockery on a grand scale.

Located
on Diamond Street, the firm of Hamilton and Jones was the only real
competitor of cross-town rival James Hamilton in the Greensboro
district. The company was also known as the Star Pottery and for a
while, as the Union works. The business continued to produce pottery for
over thirty years and its reputation was widespread. Available records
indicate that the Hamilton and Jones company, while a close rival of
James Hamilton and Company, never actually surpassed the latter in
production. Since records are available only through 1880, it is
possible that the Hamilton and Jones Pottery was the major producer of
pottery goods in southwestern Pennsylvania during the last decades of
the 19th century. However, the sources of competition slowly had their
effect, and the company eventually fell upon hard times. The final blow
came in 1897, when a fire destroyed the plant and closed down
operations. Although the company attempted to move into the Williams
and Reppert plant across town, efforts to start anew were futile.

James
Hamilton remained in control of his firm until 1880. A share of the
business had been sold in 1866, but he continued to hold the majority
interest for the next fourteen years until he sold out completely to
Thomas Reppert and W.T. Williams. In 1884 Reppert purchased the entire
business from Williams, making himself the sole proprietor. Williams
was able to buy back into the business once again in 1890. Pottery
marked Williams and Reppert is still fairly common today. According to
old business records from this company, stoneware was being made
during the 1880′s and 1890′s for dealers in at least four states.

This
partnership lasted for twenty years. By the beginning of World War I
all significant production had ended and this generally marks the period
(~1915-16) end of stoneware manufacturing in Greensboro.